The Kept and The Chased
by harrypottermarriedme
Summary: Good old Oliver and Katie fun. I find it funny, I hope you do, too. Chapter 2 up! Completed.
1. Heating Up

_My very first Katie/Oliver fic. There will be another part to come, but don't expect it to be attached to this because I am PC-challenged._

_Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, I just live vicariously through them._

The doorknob rattled suddenly, alerting Oliver that she'd arrived at last. He ran his right hand through his hair out of habit and continued staring down at his desk. The door creaked for a second, then there was the tapping of heels on tile.

"Morning, Wood," she said, suppressing a yawn.

"Hey," he replied, not even looking up. _Oh, great. Way to be smooth, Wood. She probably thinks you're socially inept now. Go on, say something! Anything! _

"So," he began timidly, "lots of work to be done today, eh?" He busied himself by rummaging through his top left drawer for a pen he knew didn't exist.

"Looks like it. Look at this, four letters from Flint _already._" She picked them up and began examining them. "'Notify Witch Weekly of our new "Vision in Pink" style', 'Make sure you check into the law regarding the use of redwood in the handles', 'Tell Wood he's fired....'"

"Firing me again, eh? This time I don't think I'll even move my things, he'll only ask me back in a few hours time anyway. You'd think after the sixth time, he'd realize that firing me doesn't benefit him at all." He placed his hands behind his head and propped his feet on his desk.

Katie Bell giggled lightly. "Wood, the only reason he keeps you around is to insult you and feel like a bigger man, you know that, right?"

He knew it was true and found it just as funny as she did. "Well, each of us has a purpose in life. Mine is being Flint's patsy for a while, I can deal with that."

She retained a smile, but was quite serious when she spoke next. "Wood, you'll do much bigger things than this office. Don't even think that you won't." She was right, of course. Wood had been the best keeper Puddlemere United had ever seen until his muggle mother had become quite ill. He left the team and spent every moment he could with her. She'd recovered, but Quidditch season was over, so he'd have to wait until it started up again to rejoin Puddlemere. He simply smiled politely to Katie and began to read over some of Flint's newest broomstick pitches. That was his current occupation, critique the brooms proposed by his "superiors" upstairs. They were all geniuses, but not much for flying. So it was up to Wood to determine whether or not a Quidditch player would ever purchase a certain broom. The job paid well, but Oliver would have gladly done it for free considering his office partner. He glanced at her for a moment, raking his eyes over her form as if they'd never have the chance again. She was dressed conservatively today; a knee-length black skirt and matching jacket with a blue top barely visible underneath. Oliver chuckled to himself and pulled out his wand. He muttered the charm he used every time Katie wore a stodgy jacket like that. As he muttered, the dial on the thermostat moved five notches to the right. He smiled to himself and took off his jacket.

"Hot, are you?" Katie asked upon the removal of his jacket.

"You tell me," he winked. Katie merely smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Prat," she whispered as she continued rifling through a stack of folders.

Five minutes later, Katie thought to herself, "Merlin, it's warm in here. I guess I'll have to take this big jacket off. Damn it, why does Wood have to be here on the day I wear this of all tops?" She tried to be as inconspicuous as possible while removing her jacket, but to no avail. Wood noticed and before he could stop himself, he let out a wolf whistle. Katie blushed and attempted to defend the blue tank top she was barely wearing. "Hey, shut it, you. It looked fine beneath the jacket."

"Did I say anything to make you think it didn't look _fine _now?" He quirked an eyebrow.

"Prat," she whispered with a smile.

Oliver sat in wide-eyed awe of his luck. The sexiest woman he'd ever known sat before him in next-to-nothing. Part of him wanted to walk right up to her, pull her into his arms and kiss her senseless. Another part, however, wanted to push her buttons. He went with the latter.

"Listen, Bell, I understand your need for such a revealing top. I have to tell you, though, that we're just office partners, so you mustn't keep up this feebly masked seduction any longer."

Katie turned toward him with a shocked expression. "Wood, I don't known what in Hell you're on about, but if you think I spend all my time thinking of how to get you in the sack--"

Oliver cut her off quickly. "Not all of your time, certainly not. If I thought that, well, that'd just be arrogant. I was thinking maybe 75 percent of your time. But really, Bell, you and I, we just can't shag. Not unless you ask nicely."

Katie still wore her shocked expression, but her lips were beginning to curve into a smile. "Prat!" she squealed, hurtling her pen at his head which he caught with no trouble at all.

"Must I remind you that I was keeper for six years, three of which were professional?" He twirled the pen in his fingers while awaiting her response.

"Wait, you're a keeper? Wood, I never knew. You should talk about your accomplishments more often, you're much too modest."

"Am I?"

"To a fault."

They both laughed, each appreciating the other's sense of humor. Katie went back to working and Oliver went back to harassing her.

"So tonight, Bell, my place or yours?"

Katie laughed and spoke without meeting his gaze. "Yours, of course. Just make dinner and get all freshened up. I'll come over as soon as I finish ice skating in Hell."

"Ow, harsh." He put his hand over his heart in feigned offense. "Katie my darling, I must say, this hard-to-get bit only fans my fire."

"Maybe you just need a cold shower. Or castration."

"I'd prefer the shower."

"I'd prefer the castration."

"The shower is something we could both take part in."

"So's the castration."

"Yes, my dear, but only one of us would enjoy the castration."

"Same goes for the shower."

They looked at each other and broke out in laughter. Some people didn't get their friendship, but that didn't matter to them. They got it, and it was truly wonderful to each.

"Oh, in all seriousness, Kates, I need a date for Percy's wedding and since you're already going, will you do me the honour?" he said in an aristocratic fashion.

"What's this? Mr. Oliver Wood is asking _me _to be his _date_?" She tried to seem flattered, but instead began to giggle.

"Now, that all depends. If by 'date' you mean 'arm decoration/seat warmer/place holder', then yes, Mr. Oliver Wood is doing just that."

"How could any girl say no to that?"

"Wouldn't know, none of them have yet."

Katie rolled her eyes and went back to writing notes on a piece of parchment.

"Is that a yes?" Oliver prompted.

"It's more like a 'Why the Hell not?', but you get the idea."

"Hopefully I'll get more than that," he said cheekily.

"You're incorrigible, you know that?"

"Bless you," he said quickly.

"I didn't sneeze, you great clod, I called you incorrigible. In simpler terms, I called you a prick."

"Oh well then, I didn't mean to say 'bless you'. I meant something more along the lines of 'screw you', perhaps," he snickered audibly.

"How dare you speak to your arm decoration/seat warmer/place holder like that?"

"Sorry, Katie-belle, I'll more than make it up to you tonight."

"You never think about anything besides sex and Quidditch, do you?" she asked through a grin.

"Well, can you think of a better topic to spend all of your time thinking about?"

She decided to indulge him. "You mean besides how to get you in the sack?"

"I knew it, you do spend your life trying to seduce me."

"Of course not, just 75 percent of it."

------

At 6:45 there was a soft knock on Katie's apartment door.

"Coming!" she called.

"I wish!" Oliver yelled back through the door.

"Prat!"

"I heard that!"

She opened the door and said cheerfully, "You were intended to."

Oliver began to make a witty response but stopped short, his breath catching in his throat. Katie looked fantastic. He was about to tell her so when she began talking.

"Wood, you look fabulous!" She walked around him in a circle and let out a low whistle. "You clean up nice."

He almost returned the compliment. Almost.

"Yes. Yes, I do," he said smugly. Katie simply scoffed and turned her back to him.

"Hold on a sec, I have to get my purse."

"I'll just stand here and wilt, then."

"You could do that," she began thoughtfully, "or you could quit being so damned insufferable and take a seat on the couch."

"Me, on the couch? Now that's _just_ what you want, isn't it?" She made no response other than a small laugh as she rounded the corner of her bedroom. She picked up her purse, took a last glance in the mirror and returned to Oliver.

"Ready, my dearest?" she asked sweetly.

"Always, I just wonder if you are." She elbowed him lightly and the two proceeded out the front door.

------

The wedding was simply divine. The vows spoken by Percy and Hermione were just beautiful and the reception was too fun. Oliver and Katie danced for hours before Oliver finally suggested a drinking contest. Katie eagerly obliged, knowing full well that she could drink Oliver under the table-- which she did. By the time the two had reached Katie's door, they were sufficiently hammered.

"After you, Mr. Wood," Katie slurred as she opened the door. "Pfft, hey Oliver, guess what I just thought of--- _Wood! _Haha!"

He stumbled in laughing at Katie's discovery. "Yeah, you're right--- Wood! _Woody, Woody, Wood!_" They both cracked up at this and attempted to walk to the couch. Before they could sit down, Katie reached her hands around Wood's neck and began to hug him tightly. And she didn't stop. Wood looked at her and whispered, "Katie, you in there?" and knocked lightly on her head. When he got no response, he lifted her onto the couch and padded over to the closet where he retrieved a large cotton blanket. Once he got to the couch, he crawled on the other side of Katie, closest to the back, and draped the blanket over the two of them. He wrapped his arms around Katie's waist, kissed her temple and whispered, "'Night, Kates."

------

Katie groaned as the morning sun fell onto her eyelids. Her head pounded like a drum as she tried to place herself. _Where am I? Ok, looks like my living room. Why? Feels like a hangover. Ok, mystery solved._ She rolled off the couch and as she reached for the blanket, she gasped sharply.

_Wood! Oh, shit. Oh no, not Wood. Oh, God no. Ok, first things first, Bell. Might be a good thing to be able to see clearly._

She grabbed her wand off the coffee table and performed a sobering charm on herself and then on Wood. Now that she could think a little better, she reached down and was about to shake Wood awake when a thought occurred to her. _I'm still in my dress, my hair's still up, and... yes. I am most definitely still wearing underwear. So we didn't shag. Oh, thank you, God. Now. Time to mess with Wood a bit._

She made sure he was securely covered with the blanket and then charmed him out of his clothes, literally. She took them and scattered them about the room. She tousled her hair and removed her dress. She then tied a sheet around her body. She almost laughed out loud as she began to shake Wood awake. He blinked his eyes open slowly.

"Oliver, oh, I'm so glad you're finally up," she cooed. The second Oliver realized where he was, he sat up like a shot.

"Katie, what the Hell am I doing here?" She placed a hand on his bare chest and winked.

"What do you think you're doing here?" His entire body numbed.

"Oh God, you mean we....?" He took in everything around him: his nude body, Katie entangled in a sheet, their clothes strewn recklessly about the room. "Kates, I am _so _embarrassed. You know I didn't mean it, I wouldn't take advantage of you like that. Or, well, I wouldn't do it _sober._"

Katie actually felt a pang of guilt-- he was apologizing for something he hadn't even done.

"Hey, Ol', listen. I was just messing around with you. We didn't really do anything."

"The Hell we didn't! I'm naked!" he shouted. Katie squirmed uncomfortably.

"Well, er, I actually did that while you were sleeping."

"WHAT?" It was becoming more and more evident to Katie that she hadn't thought this entirely through.

"Oh, come on, Oliver! I didn't actually see anything. I was just playing a joke, you know, we do it all the time at work!" she said pleadingly.

He almost replied with "Yeah, but no one ever gets their clothes taken off!" when he remembered the thermostat. He decided instead to say, "Yeah, you're right. Ha ha. Sorry I got mad, I was just sort of confused, I guess." He smiled and she eagerly returned the gesture.

"Now, get the Hell out of here while I get dressed," he said flatly. Katie scowled and swatted his shoulder.

"Prat."

"You wouldn't have me any other way!" he called after her as she made her way into the kitchen.

"I wouldn't have you _any _way!" she replied.

"Ah yes, I believed that until now, and then here I am, completely nude all thanks to you." He put on his pants and picked up his shirt as he followed her path to the kitchen.

"You want some breakfast, Ol'?" she asked from the stove. She was still in her sheet.

"No thanks, lover, must be off," he mumbled as he pulled his shirt over his head.

"Don't call me lover, Oliver. We didn't _really _do anything," she said sternly. Oliver considered this and studied her frame through the thin sheet.

Oliver snuck up behind her and whispered into her ear, "Would it have been so terrible if we had?" With that, he whirled her around and kissed her lips with crushing force. He felt her sharp gasp and released her. He raised both eyebrows and smirked before turning and leaving.

A very stunned Katie Bell stood in that position for so long she burned her eggs.


	2. Winding Down

It was now two in the afternoon. Katie Bell's living room was at last free of any evidence of the fiasco that was the past twelve hours. Katie looked around and sighed in resignation. "I can't think in here," she finally said aloud. In just a few minutes, she was on her way out the door. Going for a walk usually helped her sort things out. As she walked, she looked around at all the passing people, but never _really_ saw them; she was much too wrapped up in her own thoughts, which at that moment were something like:

"...don't know _what_ he was thinking. Could have been joking. Yes, that's entirely possible."

A thought then occurred to her, one that made her stop dead in her tracks.

"Do you _want_ him to be joking?"

She leaned up against a nearby wall and began to consider this.

"Of course you do," she told herself firmly. Or was it skeptically? Is it possible to be both firm and skeptical at once? One thing was for sure, walking had not been as beneficial as she'd hoped. There was only one person who could help her now. God, she could already hear her high-pitched squeal.

-----

"Katieeeee!" Alicia Spinnet dropped her menu and ran to her best friend. Three months was too long to be away from one another. But with Alicia's new job and all... well, free-time wasn't very prevalent in her life. But when Katie sent her a 911 emergency page, she immediately cleared her entire day's schedule.

Katie teared up as the two hugged. "'Licia," she whispered. Alicia pulled away from Katie and saw the hurt in her face. She nodded knowingly and led her to their booth.

"So... he just planted one on you? Right there?" Alicia probed.

"Well, yeah, sort of," Katie replied looking down. "The thing is, I don't know if he was _really_ kissing me, or just being his stupid self."

"Kate, no offense, but who cares?" Katie looked up, taken aback. "No, I don't mean, 'Who cares that he kissed you?', I mean... well, 'Who cares why he did it? _Oliver Wood kissed you!_'"

Katie stared at her blankly.

_Barmy._

_The whole world has gone absolutely barmy._

"Believe it or don't, 'Licia, I didn't _want_ him to kiss me. Well, I mean sort of, but---"

"Aha!" Alicia interrupted.

"_But_," Katie pressed on, "now I don't know what to do. I don't know how to feel." Alicia smiled sympathetically.

"Oh Katie," she said warmly, "I say sleep with him." Katie's eyes flew open and Alicia began to laugh heartily. Katie soon followed suit.

"Alicia, you're terrible," she snickered.

"Yes, yes, insult me later. But first, allow me to be completely blunt with you."

"What, "sleep with him" wasn't blunt enough?"

"You gonna let me talk, Bell?"

"By all means."

"OK. Here's what I know to be true: you've been friends with Oliver for nearly fourteen years, and you've both considered dating before. This isn't the first time you two have kissed--- yes, I know about that, so save your breath," she said as Katie looked at her quizzically. "Katie, my point is this, you two... you're just perfect for each other. You've been trying to fight it for so long. Lucky for you, Oliver seems to have realized it." Katie smiled appreciatively at Alicia.

"Now I remember why you're my best friend," she said, patting Alicia's hand.

"I knew there had to be some reason, but I'd always thought it was because of my devastatingly good looks," Alicia replied.

"Oh yeah, that might've been it, too."

"Or quite possibly my ability to ruin potentially tender moments?" she offered.

"That's the one."

-----

Oliver peeked into the office and sighed with relief. _She isn't here yet! _That saved him a lot of embarrassment. In his head, he'd been over and over what he was going to say to Katie to explain his actions. _It was just a mistake, I was confused. _It sounded lame even as he thought it. It was certainly untrue, but he didn't want to ruin their friendship by telling her how much he loved her. He'd considered calling in sick, but that seemed lame, too. He strolled to his desk and began to sift through his already hefty pile of letters. One caught his eye instantly; it was pink and scrawled across the front in feminine handwriting was "To Oliver, please read".

"All right, then," he said as he removed a piece of paper from the envelope. Oliver's heart froze upon his recognition of the handwriting.

_"Oliver,_

_First of all, I'd love to ask when the memo was handed out stating you could spontaneously kiss your best friend without permission. I must've been out that day. Secondly, I'd like to ease your mind by saying that you won't have to worry about awkward moments in the office: I quit this morning. Third and finally, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't try to contact me. No phone calls, no letters, no signed photographs—nothing. We had a lovely friendship which you chose to completely disrespect, but I choose to remember it as lovely. Goodbye forever, Wood._

_-Katie Bell"_

Oliver's mouth hung slack. His brows, however, were furrowed to their full extent. He couldn't seem to get his mind to start, so he said the first thing that came to him which happened to be---

"Damn." It was simple, and yet so fitting.

"Damn, indeed," said a voice from the door. Oliver jerked his head up to see his (former?) office partner and best friend.

"Katie," he breathed, still quite unhinged by her letter.

"Wood," she nodded curtly. "Now that you know the worst that could happen," she gesticulated to the letter, "perhaps we can have a little chat. No, I'm not angry and no, I'm not leaving. So wipe that look off your face, it's creepy." Katie began to pace as Oliver watched her intently.

"I met you fourteen years ago, September first, to be exact. As I remember, you called me 'feces-brain', an insult I've yet to receive an apology for, but that's neither here nor there. My point is, Wood, at that moment I knew I'd love you for the rest of my life. And I have. I watched you grow, and laugh, and change, and hurt, and scream... a lot. I watched you have relationship after relationship with girls who only wanted you for your looks or your status. I watched you cry—four times if you want to get specific. And I realized we were only destined for friendship and I accepted that. And I thought you had as well... until the other morning. So I have to know, Wood, what was it?" She looked into his face for the first time since she'd begun speaking. To her surprise, she saw a wide smile spreading across his lips. He stood and crossed the room until he was directly in front of her. She felt his hands on her waist and heard him speak.

"I won't apologize for calling you feces-brain, strictly because you quite deserved it, if memory serves me. And more importantly, I'll have you know I've only ever cried twice in my entire life. Once was the day I met you and you kicked me. Hence, feces-brain. The second was in seventh year when I kissed you and you just walked away." He looked at her warmly while she giggled.

"You remember that, eh? You just startled me, is all. I had just begun to get over you and then you go and kiss me. Sorry about that, you know, running away."

"Ah, I can't hold it against you. You were a feces-brain."

"Flattery will get you nowhere."

"Oh no?" He then finally pulled her lips onto his for the most perfect kiss either had ever received. It was a kiss of true, unfaltering love; a first for both the feces-brain and the incorrigible prat.

-----

"Katie Bell, will you marry me?" Oliver asked as he held her hands in his.

"No way, you're gross!" She then kicked him with malice force in the shin and ran away. Oliver's eyes welled up with tears as he experienced his very first heartbreak at eleven years old. And so he responded in a way only a heartbroken eleven-year-old boy can.

"Feces-brain!" he shouted through steadily increasing sobs.

Katie Bell looked back and stuck her tongue out at him.

She could have never imagined that she'd be asked the exact same question by the exact same boy fifteen years later, and she sure couldn't have imagined that she'd say yes.


End file.
